Unfortunately, we only have the newspapers to rely on, but the trial seemed to me one of a series in which the charges were an exaggeration of the evidence. But I suspect there’s going to be a retrial, because no government agency is going to be able to accept that the ban on liquids etc on aircraft is a little over the top [and a way of forcing you to spend money at the airport shops]…as is the old shoes removal business [but it immortalises Richard Reid as the “shoe bomber”!]. We shall see. Another problem from the Blair-Blunkett period come back to haunt poor old Gordon. Anyway, there will be lots of links from this piece to other relevant sites, so it has to be on the blog.
Nice to note that our boys are blaming the Americans for making them act too soon! I would love to hear some real scientists debate whether this stuff could really have worked. But it isn’t going to happen!
Please note: I’m not saying whether the threat was or was not real. I am simply saying that the evidence didn’t hold up and I note that the jury felt the same way.

UNODC Report that synthetic drugs like ecstasy and amphetamines on the rise in East and South East Asia and the Middle East. Full text at: http://www.unodc.org/documents/scientific/ATS/Global-ATS-Assessment-2008-Web.pdf

Oh and the cost of getting a court ruling? $35,000. How utterly depressing. Report on business in Russia by the National anti-Corruption Committee and the Phoenix Group with Transparency International. OK, OK. I’ll find the URL for you! Just back from the Symposium on Organised and Economic Crime at Jesus College Cambridge. Recovering!

No it doesn’t. The Commission does. This too will one day reach the Court. Fingerprinting on purely ethnic grounds a highly dangerous precedent. Is it criminal to be a member of an ethnic group? Next, as Pastor Niemoller said, it will be a religious group, then an ideological group, and finally…You! [Unless you protest]
O tempora! O mores!

£3.5 Billion pounds lost and less than 1 in 20 report it. Royal Mail refuses to act. Claims it has a legal obligation to deliver all mail…what? Is there no offence of abuse of the postal system? Is it the US that has that?Could it be time to start a campaign here?